this post was submitted on 02 Nov 2023
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Fedora or Mint for noob? (monero.town)
submitted 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) by jack@monero.town to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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A friend might let me install Linux on his secondary laptop he uses for university. He's not a tinkerer and wants something that just works.

Linux Mint is known for being very user-friendly and stable. Also easy to get help online.

However, in my opinion Mint seems rather outdated, both with its Windows-like workflow, default icons and look and also Xorg. When I tried it I had some screen stuttering I couldn't resolve, probably due to Xorg.

Instead, Fedora with GNOME is very elegant and always uses the newest technologies. It feels and looks actually nice and not outdated. But I'd have to install media codecs via terminal first which suggests that Fedora is for experienced users. Also university wifi eduroam doesn't work on Fedora for me because legacy TLS connection is not supported in Fedora (at least I couldn't get it to work). I'm at a different uni than him tho, so it might work there. In general, less help on the web for Fedora than Mint.

What do you think? (Btw, KDE is too convoluted in my opinion. Manjaro too, it breaks too often. I will not consider it.)

EDIT: From what I've gathered so far, I should probably install Mint. He can try Fedora with a live usb or on my laptop. If he prefers that then I can warn him that this may be less stable and ask what he wants.

I've only tried Ubuntu-based Mint, but LMDE is more future-proof so it will probably be that.

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[–] woelkchen@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago (6 children)

However, in my opinion Mint seems rather outdated

That's because Cinnamon is actually a fork of an ancient Gnome release that has since gotten much fewer enhancements compared to Gnome (and Plasma).

I’d have to install media codecs via terminal first which suggests that Fedora is for experienced users.

That is factually wrong: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/38/ChangeSet#Unfiltered_Flathub

Also university wifi eduroam doesn’t work on Fedora for me because legacy TLS connection is not supported in Fedora (at least I couldn’t get it to work).

When the WiFi relies on insecure encryption, the problem will only be delayed on Mint because Mint's underlying Ubuntu core is just older. Once a newer security policy comes to Mint, it will have exactly the same problem. The actual solution is for you university to update the WiFi encryption. In the meantime, according to https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/StrongCryptoSettings2#Upgrade/compatibility_impact the security defaults of Fedora can be rolled back to an earlier level quite easily.

[–] jack@monero.town 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (3 children)

That is factually wrong: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/38/ChangeSet#Unfiltered_Flathub

Okay, after removing all the preinstalled media players plus firefox and reinstalling them through Flathub it might be possible to skip the official tutorial.

Fedora should just preinstall everything as flathub flatpaks.

the problem will only be delayed on Mint because Mint's underlying Ubuntu core is just older. Once a newer security policy comes to Mint, it will have exactly the same problem.

That is a valid point. Although I can imagine that Mint devs would rather leave legacy TLS enabled to be more user-friendly.

In the meantime, according to https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/StrongCryptoSettings2#Upgrade/compatibility_impact the security defaults of Fedora can be rolled back to an earlier level quite easily.

Thanks for the link, I will try this.

[–] korbel@lemmy.ml 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

If you are the one installing the distro, it probably doesn't matter that you have to copy-paste some commands to install proprietary codes because it's a one time thing. In my experience, the bigger problem usually is not the first time setup but the maintenance. In case of Fedora they would have to upgrade it every 6 months. That's why I usually suggest LTS or something rolling but stabe distro like OpenSUSE Thumbleweed.

[–] woelkchen@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

In case of Fedora they would have to upgrade it every 6 months.

The upgrading experience for Fedora Workstation is super smooth, on par with macOS, Android, and so on. Gnome Software just tells the user that a new version is available, the user clicks on the upgrade button and then it's just waiting a bit and a reboot.

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